Windward Coast, it has been growing, was a gentleman who told your lordships upon the Leeward; for the whole annual number of 57,000 very greatly exceeds the total of the annual export before the reduction on the Windward Coast. Now, my lords, since I find in fact, that the reduction upon the Windward Coast, from whatever cause it has proceeded, has been accompanied with such an increase of the trade in the other part as has vastly overbalanced the deficit from that reduction,-have I not a right to conclude, that any farther diminution which may be produced to windward by this bill will be more than overpaid by an increase upon the unprohibited parts; and so the total of the trade will remain at least undiminished? If this be a just conclusion, and I am sure it is the just and necessary conclusion from the evidence, if any policy-the contrary is my opinion; but if any policy persuade the continuance of the trade, there is nothing in this bill contrary to such policy; for this bill leaves the trade, in its generality, such as it finds it. If any humanity calls for the continuance of the trade (for such an argument has been attempted), this bill cramps not the generous efforts of that humanity; for not a slave less, upon the whole, will be taken in the year from one part or another of Africa.

-

I heard with joy and satisfaction the statement of the prosperity of the West India islands: I rejoice that the empire possesses such a fund of wealth in that quarter. But my lords, if the prosperity of the West India Islands is at all connected with the slave trade,-if it depends upon the numbers annually exported from Africa,-it will not be in the smallest degree endangered by this bill; by which the slave trade will not be affected, the numbers will not be abridged. And so the West India planters themselves seem to think, by the perfect indifference they have shown about this bill. Do your lordships imagine you have had the great body of West India planters at your bar, petitioning against the bill? No such thing. We had something like a petition from the single island of Jamaica: the gentleman residing here in the character of agent for that island presented a petition against the bill. A learned counsel appeared for that petition at the bar, and he produced witnesses: and much was I astonished at the sort of witnesses he produced, I was quite puzzled with it. Three witnesses were called. The first [VOL. XXXIV.]

he had resided in Jamaica twenty years: he had an estate of his own; and he managed some other estates: for his own estate, he had purchased, in the twenty years, 200 slaves in all; and of these 200 eleven were purchased as slaves from the Windward Coast; but he was cheated in two of them, for two of the eleven turned out not to be from the Windward Coast: he had therefore purchased in all, in the space of twenty years, nine slaves from the Windward Coast, and no more. This seemed to me an extraordinary evidence to prove the importance of the import from the Windward Coast to the island of Jamaica. The second of the three witnesses had resided some time in Jamaica, not as a planter, but as a merchant: he had resided in that part of the island where he had the least opportunity of acquiring any knowledge of the import; for he resided in the north part of the island: he had been concerned in the sale of three cargoes, and no more; and from what part of the coast of Africa the slaves sent to Jamaica might come, or what proportion might come from the Windward Coast, he told your lordships plainly he knew nothing. The last witness of the three was called only to prove the present average price of a prime slave in the island of Jamaica; and he was not asked a single question about the import. My lords, I was very much astonished at this sort of evidence. One witness proved that the proportion of windward slaves purchased by him was next to nothing; and a second could give your lordships no information at all upon the subject of the import; and the third was not called to that point. I very much suspected some mystery lay at the bottom of this. My lords, the mystery was soon cleared up, when the logbooks were exhibited; for by them it appears that the slaves from the Windward Coast in general are not carried to Jamaica, but to other islands; and one of the slave-captains, when he spoke of the preference given to the Windward Coast slaves, excepted the island of Jamaica,where, he said, the slaves from Bonney are preferred. My lords, they are so much preferred, that the Jamaica planters refuse the Windward Coast cargoes: they will not take slaves from the windward, if they can procure those of another part. The island of Jamaica, therefore, is not at all interested in the event of this bill, since the trade which it will cut off makes [4 CJ

no part of the supply of that island; and yet this island, is the only one of the West India islands that has petitioned against it. My lords, I have a right to conclude, that the great body of the West India planters are not adverse to this bill; and if they are not adverse to it, it must be because they are sensible that their supply will not be diminished by it. Then, my lords, for the good town of Liverpoc,-if the prosperity of Liverpool depends upon the slave trade, it will not be affected by this bill; which will leave the slave trade, in its total amount, just as it found it.But your lordships have been told that this bill, professing only to abolish the trade within certain limits, in effect will destroy the whole trade, by the difficulties which will be laid upon it; for it is pretended, that ships cannot trade even to the Leeward Coast without taking in provisions upon the Windward Coast. My lords, the answer is, first, that if the allegation were true, that provisions must be taken in upon the Windward Coast, this bill forbids not but that any ship may stop upon the Windward Coast for the purpose of taking in provisions; but, secondly, the allegation, though made by witnesses upon oath, is false-absolutely false; the oaths of these witnesses are falsified by the deposition of the log-books. A ship's log-book, your lordships know, is the authentic record of the occurrences of her voyage, which must bear down all other evidence; and by an extract from the log-books, it appears, that out of 100 ships which sailed from the port of Liverpool to the Leeward Coast in the years 1791 and 1797, one ship only took in provisions upon the Windward Coast.

So much for that part of the case. Again, it is pretended, that the bill prohibits the trade in that part where it may be prosecuted with the greatest advantage; that the time of the voyage from the Windward Coast to the west is shorter in a very great proportion than the time of the passage from the Leeward Coast; and that, in consequence of the brevity of the voyage, the mortality is less and the slaves arrive in better health. This would be a consideration of great importance, were it true; but it is all pretence and fiction. My lords, in exposing the falsehood, I shall not avail myself in argument of the vile deception which these witnesses upon oath audaciously attempted to practise upon this House, by smuggling the time of the tedious delay

upon the Windward Coast to collect the
cargoes. The cargoes are not collected
but in a long time upon the Windward,—
upon the Leeward Coast they are com-
pleted presently; and when the time of
detention upon the coast is added to the
time of the Middle Passage, the voyage
from the Windward turns out to be the
longest of the two, and if the quickest
voyages are the most healthy, the voyages
from the Leeward ought to be the
healthiest. But, my lords, I wave this: I
will take the comparative length of the
voyage (I mean the length in time) as
they themselves have stated it; and I will
show your lordships, that this pretended
healthiness of the passage from the Wind-
ward Coast is all a fallacy. My lords, I
assert that the very healthiest of the ships
are nothing better than pestilential gaols!
I assert, that in the healthiest of their
ships, upon their shortest passages, the
rate of mortality is enormous-the waste
of human life prodigious, monstrous,
shocking to the imagination! This, my
lords, I assert; and I will prove my asser-
tion by their own statements. My lords,
Mr. Robert Hume made several voyages
from different parts of the coast of Africa
to the West Indies; and he has given his
account, upon his oath, of the time of
each voyage, the total of his cargo, and
the number of the deaths in each. In
1792, Mr. Hume made a voyage from the
Windward Coast to Jamaica. He made
it in thirty-three days; he shipped upon
the coast of Africa 265 slaves; and twenty-
three died in the Middle Passage. Twen-
ty three out of 265, in thirty-three days!
Thirty-three days are, as nearly as may
be, one eleventh of a year: and eleven
times twenty-three is 253; and this would
have been his loss by death, had the pas-
sage lasted a whole year! The man would
have lost within a very few of his whole
cargo !-Now, the importation of slaves
above the age of 25 is prohibited, in the
West Indies, by the colonial laws.. I
must therefore assume, that this cargo of
Mr. Hume's was composed of persons
not above the age of 25 years. My
lords in this town of London, the rate
of mortality, by the most approved
tables which all calculators use, is not,
at the age of 25, more than 17 in 1,000
in the year: out of 1,000 persons living,
of the age of 25, seventeen and no more
die in the town of London in a year;—In
Mr. Hume's ship, 253 out of 265! My
lords, in 1795, Mr. Robert Hume made a

voyage from the Gold Coast of St. Vin- | ple; and the extraordinary healthiness of cent's. The mortality was nothing like her voyage was alleged as a fact, to evince that of the former voyage; and this is one the folly of the regulations we have made curious instance, in confirmation of what to prevent the negro from being poisoned was argued by the noble secretary of in the Middle Passage, as we idly fear, in state, that, when the depositions of these the steams of his own person. In the gentlemen are properly corrected, by Plumper, care was taken that the slaves supplying material circumstances which should have no room to stir or breathe; they, witnesses upon oath, concealed, the she was a single-decked ship: and the voyages from the Leeward Coast turn out height in the hold was no more than two to be the healthiest. So it was, upon the feet seven inches: in this vessel 140 comparison of these two voyages of Mr. slaves were stowed; and of these there Hume, his voyage to Jamaica in 1792, died in the passage only two. Two out and this voyage to St. Vincent's in 1795 of 140. The time of the passage is not the latter, though from the Leeward stated in Mr. Coxe's account: but it apCoast, was far the healthiest. And yet, pears that the vessel was small not exceedeven in this healthier voyage, the rate of ing 84 tons burthen. These small vessels mortality was enormous. The cargo con- are not employed in the Leeward Coast sisted of 215 slaves: the vessel was seven trade; they are sent only to the Windward weeks and four days in her passage; and Coast: I have a right, therefore, to asthe deaths in that time, Mr. Hume said, sume, that this small vessel slaved upon were three or four. Three or four died, the Windward Coast; and I shall deal very out of 215, in seven weeks and four days. fairly by her, if I allow for the time of her Seven weeks and four days make about Middle Passage what has been stated by one-seventh of the whole year; and seven the witnesses to be the average time of times three or four is twenty-one or the Middle Passage from the Windward twenty-eight: the mean, in round num- Coast to the West Indies. Now, my lords, bers, is 24: 24 therefore would have died Mr. John Olderman, an experienced slave out of the 215, if the ship had been the captain, has told you, that the average of whole year upon the Middle Passage: the passage from the Windward Coast to 24 therefore out of 215 was the rate of the West Indies, is thirty days. Allowing mortality in this ship, the rate at London, therefore this average time to the ship for persons of the like age, being only 17 Plumper for her Middle Passage, it was in in 1,000.-In 1796, Mr. Hume made a thirty days that two of her slaves died out voyage from Cape Mount to Jamaica, of 140. Two in thirty days, is twenty-four in 31 days. His whole cargo was 230; in the whole year; 24, therefore, out of of which one only died in the Middle 140 in the year, was the rate of mortality Passage. One out of 230 in 31 days; in this ship; instead of 17out of 1,000, the again, my lords, an enormous rate of mor- London rate. Partof this excessive mortaltality. Take the 31 days as a month: ity is, I doubt not, to be ascribed to the prothen twelve out of 230 in the year was the vision that was made, in the construction rate of mortality in this ship; instead of of the vessel, to secure to the negroes the 17 out of 1,000, the London rate. full advantage of the want of air: but upon this circumstance I lay no stress ;I maintain, that when the rate of mortality is examined upon true principles, it is so enormous, in the very best of their vessels, that when we talk of a healthy slave-ship, we talk of a nonentity; there is no such thing. And no certain proportion can be found between the comparative healthiness of one voyage and another; but making the best comparison we can, and taking into the account the numbers that die in the windward trade before they quit the coast, the result would be in favour of the Leeward.

I shall trouble your lordships with but one instance more; and that shall be the instance of the ship Plumper of Liverpool. Your lordships are already well acquainted with the story of the Plumper. You will recollect, it is in evidence,-that there is a great peculiarity in the negro constitution; that it is particularly conducive to the health of the negro to be close shut up in foul air. This is death to us white men, as we know by the experiment of the Black-Hole, and other tragical instances; but for your negro, it is the reverse: keep him but hot enough, he will always do well: and the better, the more you try to stifle him. Now, my lords, the good ship Plumper was built upon this very princi

My lords, with respect to the reduction that has taken place in the export from the Windward Coast, the witnesses pro

All in

but that it should be any thing.
fant colonies have difficulties; but the dif-
ficulties of this colony have been unusually
great-the dreadful sickness which in the
first year swept off so many of the first
settlers; the destruction and pillage of
their town by the French; but most of all
the untoward materials they had to work
upon, in the formation of the colony itself.
The first colonists were the blacks from
Nova Scotia: these were a set of people
of the very worst dispositions-averse to
labour, debauched, refractory, untracta-
ble, my lords, it is no small argument of
the good effects that may be expected
from this colony, that these are now, by
the good management of the company,
quite an altered race-sober, industrious,
orderly. But, we have still a stronger ar-
gument of what this colony may do, in the
change for the better which in some small
degree has taken place in the manners of
the slave traders in their neighbourhood.
My lords, it is easy to understand, that
your slave-trader must be an animal more
difficult to tame than the mere savage:
the slave-trader is something very differ-
ent from the savage man: he is the man
barbarized-not untaught, like the savage
but, acquainted with civil life, and with
powers of intellect considerably improved,
he uses his improved intellect only to be
the slave of his avarice, and to overpower
all those generous sympathies of our nature
which might be obstacles to its pursuits:
he has eradicated in his own bosom all
the virtuous feelings of the savage; he has
imbibed all that is evil in the policy of civil
life. Yet the Sierra Leone company
has succeeded in somewhat softening the
loathsome asperity of the manners of these
barbarians.

nounce that the war is the cause of it; and they say, that some time or other, though in what future year of our Lord they cannot tell, a peace will come: and when the peace comes, the trade upon the Windward Coast, ifthis bill should not pass into a law, will revive. My lords, I say, that at best this is but prophecy; and we have had abundant experience, that when these gentlemen pretend to prophecy, their predictions are generally falsified by the event but I say, that without any revival of the trade upon the windward, which I hope and trust will never be, we have the highest reason to believe that the deficit apprehended from the prohibitions of this bill will be more than made up by the growth of the trade on the remaining part of the coast. Now, my lords, since the diminution of the trade upon the whole, by the operation of this bill, will be nothing, since neither the interests of the slave-trade itself, nor the supply of the West India islands, nor the trade of Liverpool, can possibly be affected by this diminution, since the inconveniences apprehended from the proposed limitation by reason of the necessity of touching at the windward coast for provisions-since the greater length of the Middle Passage from the leeward coast-the greater unhealthiness of the voyage-since all this is mere pretence, falsehood, fiction, and delusion-I ask your lordships, whether the objects of the Sierra Leone company are not such as in some degree merit your attention? The grand object of the Sierra Leone company is, to establish a fair and friendly commerce with the Africans: and, by that means, to spread the light of knowledge, divine and human, in that country, and gradually to forward its civilization. That these objects cannot be But, my lords, there remains one prinobtained while the slave trade is carried cipal argument brought against the bill, of on in the neighbourhood of the colony, is which I have not yet taken notice. Howmanifest. By excluding the slave trade ever inconsiderable the number of the from that neighbourhood, the trade itself slaves may be of which it will deprive the will suffer nothing; the benevolent designs trade, it is said the bill will deprive it of of the Sierra Leone company will be for its best slaves and in this respect, the warded. Much pains had been used, to loss, however it may be made up in point make this colony contemptible; from the of number, in value cannot be compensatlow state of their finances, the narrow ex-ed by the supply from other parts; for, tent of their trade, and the little progress they have hitherto made in their great project of instructing and civilizing Africa: but when I consider the difficulties the Sierra Leone colony has had to struggle with, my wonder is, not that it is not more flourishing, but that it exists at this moment-not that its progress is so small,

with the exception of some taken from the Gold Coast, the slaves procured upon the Windward Coast, the witnesses say, are the very best of all. And why are they the best, my lords?-They are the best, not only because they are the healthiest and the strongest, but because they are the fittest for field labour; they are the

most tractable, docile, and submissive: | emerge: they pretend, therefore, that it they are easily trained to many parts of is charity to these people to tear them the business of a ship; they easily learn from their native soil, and transport them the use of small arms, and to work the to those Hesperides of the blacks, where great guns with so much dexterity, that their condition, though bad enough, will two of the slave-captains have told your yet be something better in some small delordships they have fought their ships gree nearer to that of civil life, than it with cargoes of these slaves. One of the ever could be if they remained in their two, in 1796, commander of the Jemmy own country. My lords, if the assumption of Liverpool, with only eight white men were true, I know not that the conclusion aboard, but with 219 slaves from Cape would be just. A learned counsel at the Mount, engaged a French privateer, and bar took upon him to argue the policy beat her off. The other, in 1779, his of public measures; he took upon him ship's company being 42 whites, with 150 to instruct your lordships in your leWindward Coast slaves in arms chased a gislative duty; he admonished you to large French privateer into Aux Cayes in beware how you would attempt to St. Domingo; when another ship of the alter by force the moral and political state enemy, of equal force, lay a few miles to of man. My lords, I agree with the leeward. My lords, while these Africans learned counsel in the general maxim ;were upon military duty, they were per- the moral and political state of man is mitted to assume the appearance of men and ordered by Providence; and any attempt of soldiers; they were armed and dressed of man forcibly to alter and amend it is a like the other men: What became of them presumptuous interference in a matter when the service was performed? Mylords, that belongs to Providence: but, my lords, they were divested of the arms which upon the slave-trade I charge the guilt of they had so bravely used in the defence that presumption. If the natives of Africa of the ships of this country against the are in that abject state of barbarism which king's enemies; they were divested of the slave-merchants allege, I say that their clothing! they were stripped stark Providence has placed them in it; and naked, my lords,-these men who had what has the slave-trade to do with His saved our vessels, from the enemy! they dispensations? Whatever the present were exposed to sale, naked slaves, in the condition of these Africans may be, I am slave markets of the West Indies! My confident that the merciful God who has lords, what were your feelings when this cast their present lot so low, will, in his shameful tale was told? I will tell your own good time, without the interference lordships what my feelings were-what of the slave trade, raise them to the full they are at this moment: I would rather state and dignity of man. Let the slavehave been one of the Africans which trade leave the work to Him: it is no were so sold, than either of the British concern of theirs. But if the plea that slave captains (I lament, my lords, that I they set up were better than it is as apmust call them Britons) who sold their va- plied to Africa in general, their argument liant comrades in arms! fails them on the Windward Coast: the slaves procured there are not in the state of hopeless barbarism they describe; by their own showing, among these people the work of civilivation is begun. And think, my lords, how far, over what a length of country, this incipient civilization must extend. The slaves procured upon this Windward Coast are not the natives of the coast itself; they are

But, my lords, the circumstance to which I would principally direct your attention is this,-this fitness for fieldlabour, this tractability, this docility of disposition, these, wherever they are found, are certain marks of at least incipient civilization; and the Windward Coast slaves, in whom these marks of incipient civilization, by the testimony of these witnesses, appear, are for that rea-brought down from remote parts of the son the very persons whom the slavetrade, npon its own principles, ought to spare. My lords, when the slave-trade attempts to defend itself, as it does, upon the ground of humanity, it is upon this pretence, that the natives of Africa are in that state of barbarism from which it is impossible they should ever spontaneously

interior country. The witnesses have told your lordships, that these people reckon their time by moons; and describe the time that they are travelling to the coast as five, six, seven, and sometimes eight moons; and the witnesses guess that their rate of travelling may be 15 miles per day. I will take six moons as